Sonos v. Heos Comparison

hey it takes time. Sonos has been around for over a decade, heos is 4 years.

They’re already in their 2nd hardware generation in just 4 years!? Has to be longer. They’ll likely need to go to gen 3 after Sonos finishes them off in the courts.

Yes - HEOS building a customer base isn't happening.

that is the app, once the law suit gets settle, which it will. They will end up paying a big lic fee to sonos. And that will resolve the block features on the app.

But other features to also consider, heos 1 and heos 3 are portable and you can travel with them as Bluetooth speakers. As they have the option of a battery pack. 2 function the sonos can not do.

They have usb ports to pop in a flash drive with party music.

Sonosnet works better then wifi, and does not bog down your wifi network. And if you have issues, you can add a boost. Something Heos do not do. You are completely on Wifi. In very high residential area, and tons of wifi, sonos net can make a huge difference. Very important if you live in an area with wifi issue. That it is big enough to negate some of the oh gosh nice to have features of the Heos.

You can add speakers with the connect family if you have some good ones. If I were to go big for a heos 7, i would go connect amp and get some really good sounding dump speakers. I did once upon a time.

Hopefully hdmi will be resolve so that will be a moot point after June 6. Right now heos has the edge.

The Sonos in white looks way better then the heos except for the black grill of the play5. Which I think throws that look off for a white motif home.

Sonos will have both google and alexa intergation, vs just alexa on Heos.

Heos have native HD Audio support, not to big of an advantage. Unless you have heading acute as a dog.

Sonos right now have way better customer service.

These are some of the pros of both system. And the decision will really come down to some of these factors.

They would drop the line before having to continue to pay license fees to Sonos.

How do I use HEOS with my Smartthings controller and home automation?

How do I play my Apple Music to HEOS?

How is that chromecast support going with HEOS they promised?

patience is my strong suit. It took sonos how long to finally come out with HDMI, if the rumors are true. Still waiting on native Bluetooth support. ;)

I do think with the change in ownership to a US company. They will get better. I have dealt with Polk Audio Customer service, and it was a nice experience.

For the same reason as change in cultural ownership, I think that denon will get better. Northern Asian companies are not big in the long game. They tend to panic and change direction with the pervailing winds.

Sonos will be facing more competition, think that is why they are looking to raise captial by going public. Samsung and LG system are not that good. But the yamaha, denon and onkyo wireless systems sound is just as good as sonos. But not as big a product line. But they will grow. I dont see yamaha bailing out of their musicast system. And this is actually a good thing, it will drive innovation.

I believe a couple of brands under their new parent company use DTS PlayFi, so they may be forced to go into that swamp.

They would drop the line before having to continue to pay license fees to Sonos.

How do I use HEOS with my Smartthings controller and home automation?

How do I play my Apple Music to HEOS?

How is that chromecast support going with HEOS they promised?

chromcast can be plug in via chromecast audio 3.5mm

Apple musc via Bluetooth

alexa will work with heos, and like sonos google home is planned. maybe smartthings will be added one day as well. But I am still waiting for google assistant with sonos.

I believe a couple of brands under their new parent company use DTS PlayFi, so they may be forced to go into that swamp.

maybe, but the chip set in the Heos are newer, they might be able to support both. Only time will tell.

I dont see yamaha bailing out of their musicast system.

Remind me, is this Yamaha’s 2nd or 3rd attempt at wireless audio? They abandoned the first, possibly the second.

Remember Sony’s wireless system? S-Air? Abandoned now.

2nd, but the tech is getting better every year. And the wx 010 does sound better then the sonos one. WX 030 is slight behind the play 3. But it will grow, especially with the advent of the smart speaker. They committed to three big boys, apple, amazon and google. They do not want to be left behind. It is no longer a niche market when sonos first started.